Diseño

I '

-101-

Meal i s frequently used to fill in for grass when over grazing has occured or >vhen no grass is available. Some tmm suopliers in this di s trict,

however , are on soil w

hi

ch will not

gi

ve good w'inter grmvth, _<>..nd their need i s for c

o

ntinous meal feeding throughout the win ter to prolong the availabilit

y

of saved gra

s

s. An example of this point is illustrated by the last years

experience on the c ategory III farm. This farm, had a lot o f vnnter sa

v

ed

pasture, but did not rec eive much winter grm-1th because of wet and cold soil

condi ti ons. Nevertheless thro<.<fh the use of c onc entrate 2nd

n

ay the farmer v.ras a bl e to extend the saved grass over the ent

i

re -vJinter and

ma

intained a

high nroduction.

Neal feedinr can also ac t as a sourc e o f flexability for farmers m th

intense one rations. Thes e farmers a re sto c ked to take advantare of a good

grov:inp season. If _ho

vr

_ever, the season i s not good, concentrate al

l

o>Vs an alternate m

et

h

o

d of feeding. A.t thi s time , there i s possibly very little if any margin of profi t t

h

ro<.

lfh

meal feeding, but it does give the farmers

a vray to mee t the h

e

rds feed re

quir

e

m

en:-s.

Farms in cate

g

o

ry

I _{2.11d IIb used c}

o

_ncent

r

_{ates ei ther to avoid over}

grazing o r for short periods

vr

hen no grass >-ras available during the winte

r

period.

The decision as to whether to feed conc entrates and i f so the degree to feed depends on ( a ) the inherent productive c apacity of the animals ,

( b ) prices to b e received, and ( c ) the feeds available . A c areful examination

of indi visual circumstances is therefore necessary

when

making decisions about

-102- THE USE OF IRRIGATION

The Manawatu area is a distri c t in vrhich soil moi s ture deficiencies

often occur in the summers , and one in Hhi ch the time of autunm rainfall i s

very variable. (See Chapter II ) This problenl varies in i t s s everity throuph-

out the distric t mainly because of diffe r ences in soil type and rainfall. Irrigation can be an es_sent_ial practice on tovm milk farms vrhere lack of "'rater i s an important limiting factor in farm produc tion , part:L cuJarly where the land dri e s out readily and/ or being in a definite lovr summer rain- fall area. With o ther farms , irrigation would rather act as an insurance against bad drouphts , and 1 rould be nece s s ary onJ.y for short peri o ds in some years.

Irri r2 tion i s an exoensi ve imput requiring relatively lzrge amounts of labour 'and capital ; and therefore , a careful study shoul d be made , not only of the cost invoJ ved but al so i ts irnpac t on the Hhole farm operation, before

a decision is made to install a n1cnt. 14ith the first groun of farmers , as mentioned above , i,rrigation offers opuo rtuni ties of greatly inroroved _ret_urns.

The entire farm P ro gramme can be exoanded. On this t•roe, i t i s not a question

of deciding whether it pays to irrigate if the water is available, but one of

whether resource s are available to handle- irrigation. It will require a new

manapement program involving an increased demand for resources including

labour . For example where moi s ture was the limiting factor, fertility may now limit advanc ement.

· With the second group, the deci sion should depend upon how much the

individuals can afford to pay for an assured summer and autumn feed supply. •' '

-103-

whether greater returns CM be achieved eJ se1.vhere Hith the lim:i_ted resource. -,..Jb.en capital and labour are adequate , all profitable practices can be adopted and a deci sion concerning irrigation can be based on whether i t i s j udged

to be profitable or not.

Hm·mver, befo re any deci sion on irrigation is made , the farmer mus t know Hhether he has an adequate water supply, for the acreage he v;ould like

to irrigate.

Irrigation by sprinkler in this di stri c t is most suitable because of

the supplies of water available , and topography of the farming community.

Within thi s tyoe, there are 11'E thods Hhich save labour, but are more c o stly.

If the farmer is short o f capital , but has l abour to snare , he 1--rouJd likely

choose a l e s s exr,ensive low nres sure system, even though more labour i s

required to run i t. On the other hand, a farmer vrho i s anxious to substitute

capital for labour Hil1 pos sibly use a high pres sure system, which requires

less work, though it is costly to buy.

How much land to i rrigate is a que s ti on depending on the amount of water available , and the amount of 1 and needed to meet the summer feed

requirements of the herd. A general rec comendation is an irrigated acre for

every five or six cows, or alternatively ten to fifteen per-cent of the

farm

area.

( 39 )

However, if water, labour and captial i s not limited, a farmer will increase the irrigated acreage up to the point where there is marginal profit.

The disadvantage of irrigation as stated previously i� the heavy cost, both initial and yearly; and the heavy load on the labour force. Nevertheless it has many advantages which tend

to

offset these heavy inputs. Firstly, extra

-l

o4

-

feed will be available on the farm, that would othervnse not have been there .

Various methods are used to handle the extra feed and so the actual affect of irrigation i s difficul t to evaluate. Some farmers use i t to aid in achieving greater produc tion per c ow, whil e others prefer to increase their s to c k numbers. Secondly, it i s an as surance to the farmer taat there will be summer and autumn feed of high quality. It c an repl ace the summer supplements of c rop, silare, hay or even concentra te. For exampJe, if sila{!e -vras being

fed during the summer, it can now be avail able for added 1rinter feed.

Thirdly, it enable s the farmer to be certain as to having autumn s aved pasture

available for the winter feedinf programme and al:l ON"S him to start saving

gra s s any time after December for the winter reserves.

In the lv'ianm

·

r

atu,

with vari2 tions in the time of autumn rainfall , thi s guarantee of feed i s quite a relief to the farmer. Finally,it gives a more vigorous gro�nnr, pa sture for winter, and helps to prevent the opening up of pas tures and

letting weeds get started. There are possibly many other advantages but

the s e are the inportant factors vrhich the town nrLlk producer shoul d consider.

It must be remembered that this feed supplied by irrit:,<' tion is

exnen sive, and efficient utili zation i s therefore important. It i s al so important that fer tility should be maintained to allow the pasture to give optimum response to the environment, and to have species in the pasture

which will give the greatest growth response during the irrigated period.

The ryegras ses !I .par.ticul:a-rly short-rotation, will not give the summer growth with i rrigation that will

b

e

obtained from.the

summer grower such as cocksfoot, and timothy. Sound management of pastures is needed.

-105-

An example of irrigation in practice is given by the case farm in

category III . This farmer purchased a high _pres sure irrigation system -vJi th an intial c o s t

of £2,150.

The yearly oueratin g cost includinr depreciation and interes t is approximately

£450

per year. Another labour unit has al so been obtained

,

since irri gation was started to help meet the added labour lea d brought throuph expandinv the farm operation. Before i rri gation however, s oil moisture in the summer was an important factor limiting farm

output. One summer feeding practice was to provr a sup:cl ementary cro_p o f five t o six acres o f s o f t turnips . Large quanities of purchased hay

and

concentrates were also fed. Hi th t he irripc>.tion of thirty acres by sprinkler, thes e prac_tices have been discontinued. In ad_dition the _amount of !)a sture

saved for winter feed ha s been increased. Inc rease in farm output h2 s taken the form of an ir�rovemen t in carrying ca�acity and per cow �reduction. During the months of Dec ember through April for the three years !)rior to corrrnencing irrigation,

19 , 600

gallon s of miJk -v;as produced. The three years averave

since irrigation for the same Period was

26,050

gallons, an incre<:>sed gallonage

of

6,L.50.

This increas e d producti on, together with the savinf! in c o s t of

purchased feed has this farmers opini on offset the heavy c o s t and enable d

a greater margin o f �refi t to be obtained.

The need for irrigation in the Manawatu is variable. With some ,

moisture deficiency is an important limiting fac tor, -v;hile others need to

c onsider the matter of irrigation very carefully before making a decision. There are definite advantages of irrigation, extr� feed, assurance of SUll'llller feed, more vigorous pastures and insured autumn growth. It i s up to

-106-

the

particular farmer to

weigh the value of

these advantages against the heavy c ost of both labour and

cap

ital r

e

qui

re

d

.

However, with the

town

s

u

ppli er re

c

ei

vi

ng

a high

return for milk, irrig

a

tion furni shes pos sibilities in giving a gr

ea

ter n

e

t r

e

turn.

TB� USE Of NITROGENOUS FERTILISER

Ni tropen in

the form of fer

tilis

e

r

i s exrensi ve

in

New

Zealand c.md t

here f

ore its u s e has to

be careful} y watched.

The

Ne>.j" Zealand farmer,

depen

dsther

efore

on

clove

rs and the retuTn of dunp. e.nd

u

rine to the nastures by frazing stock for the maj o r supply of soil nitrogen. With

me>ny

soils poor in phosnhc-.te, it is a general

nr<.cc i".ic e

to feed clo

ver

s, phosnhatc , w.hich i s

relatively che<-�)'

to

produc e

ni tro r en for F,rass

e

s. Em.;ever, the n

i

trog

e

n fixing bac teria in the

c

lover n

odul

_es

,

\-Thich

2.re resrjonsible for the

fixP tion of

atmosnheric n

i

troge

n

<-nd

co

nversi

o

n to

:'on:.

sui

table for use

In document 13051 pdf (página 64-73)